


Wastin' Time

by guera



Series: Time keeps on slippin' [1]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: AU, Gen, Team Feels, Time Travel, lots of feels, spoilers for GotG2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-26
Updated: 2017-09-26
Packaged: 2019-01-05 13:55:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12191235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guera/pseuds/guera
Summary: Peter catches the shiny stone.That really wasn't his smartest move.





	Wastin' Time

“Peter! NO!”

The scream Gamora lets out will haunt Peter for the rest of his life, but it was too late for him to change course. He wasn't around when they were handing out the self preservation genes and while Yondu tried his damndest to beat the idea into his head, it never really stuck.

Exibit A, him grabbing the infinity stone barehanded when it burst from Ronan's staff. He hadn't been thinking about what he was doing, what could potentially happen (and he'd had a front row seat to just what the stone did to the average person who picked it up) had just reacted on instinct and for some messed up reason his instincts never seemed to give a damn about his well being. 

Luckily he was the son of freaking planet and had his friends to help him that time. Still hurt like a bitch but at least they weren't cleaning pieces of him up off the street.

He's not so lucky this time. When the glowing hand of the bad guy explodes thanks to Rocket, all Peter can see is the green stone that is released from the gore and arcs into the air. The man, even with the shock of his hand turning into a bloody stump, has his eyes locked on the stone.

Peter knows he had to get there first.

This is really starting to get old.

As soon as the stone makes contact with his skin, Peter is expecting pain, but what he gets instead is intense vertigo. He can't keep his feet under him, can't keep his eyes open. There's a rush of sound and wind buffering around him and he can't tell up from down and it just gets faster and faster until the sweet release of blackness.

It takes him an hour after waking up to realize the stone has embedded itself into the palm of his left hand, nestled between bone and muscle and ligaments, completely under the skin. He doesn't think digging it out is a great idea.

It takes him a week to figure out he's in the past, and that he has no idea what he's supposed to do about that.

It takes him six months to figure out the answer to that is nothing. The stone hasn't made a peep the whole time he's been in the past, and anytime he brings up time travel people start edging away from him. He can't risk the infinity stone ending up in the wrong hands so he's not about to advertise that he has it.

It takes two years for the stone to do anything but sit there, beneath his skin.

 

Earth Year - 1990

It hits like a punch to the gut when he hears that familiar voice from across the crowded and rowdy bar. He's just come in, surrounded by his men, obviously in good spirits (musta just pulled a good gig) and Peter can feel the bar take a breath and then ease as they realize the men in red leathers are there for a good time and not looking to start breaking bottles. Not that one can't lead to the other, but there is something about Ravengers who are obviously looking to bust heads that make people decide they'd really rather just drink somewhere else. And this little out in the middle of nowhere planet seemed to have more bars than permanent residents. 

_He's young_ is Peter's first thought. Yondu had always been _old_ to him, even though he couldn't have been more than twenty five when he first picked him up off of Terra. And if he's done his math right, and really when you have to consider all the different calenders used across the galaxy sometimes just figuring out how old he is takes advanced calculus, it's been about two years since that trip to Terra that changed all their lives.

The Ravengers have commandeered a table in the corner (one that mysteriously clears as they approach) and Peter spends way too long watching them feeling like he's opened a window to the past. He'd never been overly fond of any of the crewmates that were aboard the _Eclector_ but they were a huge part of his childhood and when Kraglin told him the fate of those that had stayed loyal to the captain he'd felt sick.

They are all alive and happy now, the noise level has increased by ten, and Peter's not really sure what his next move should be. He's spent almost a year in the past and while looking up the Ravengers… looking up Yondu and Kraglin, had crossed his mind more than once, he wasn't really sure it was the right thing to do.

Everything media has taught him about time travel says you don't fuck with it. He stares at his hand for a minute half convinced it's going to start disappearing or some shit. At least he doesn't have to worry about his mother trying to date him.

Peter makes a face and takes a long drag of the drink in front of him. He's done here, being this close to his past is obviously driving him insane. Not that he had a long way to go to get there.

He takes one last look across the bar as he makes he way towards the door and burns the image of a happy, smirking, _alive_ Yondu in his head to hopefully wash out the last images he had of the man. 

_And screw the space time continuum,_ he decides as he pushing out the door and onto the street. He's not letting _that_ future come true. 

XXX

“If you were tryin' for subtle back there, I think ya missed it.” 

Peter doesn't jump… much. He'd been walking for about ten minutes, not really looking forward to his empty ship, not really interested in hitting up another bar. He'd also not been really paying attention and he's half expecting to get cuffed on the head for it.

But the smack never comes, and when Peter stops and slants a look Yondu's way the man is giving him the once over, obviously trying to place him. 

He could pay dumb, “Don't know what you're talking about.”

Yondu's face clearly says, _really, that whatcha going with?_ but all he says is, “The way you were starin' I figure either ya wanna kill me, or fuck me and I'm not really interested in either.”

Peter feels his face pull into something that's a mix of horror and disgust. “No! That's just...ugh I'm going to have nightmares from this, like my life story wasn't dysfunctional enough.”

“Well now ya just hurtin' my feelin's.” 

The absurdity hits Peter like a brick. “I'm in a coma.”

“What.”

But Peter's on a roll now, and maybe it's his Dad, back from the dead, thinking he's _hitting on him_ for fuck's sake, or maybe it's the alcohol that is most likely tearing a hole through his organs as he's standing there on some planet in the middle of nowhere, years away from his team, _his family_ with a year to get used to the fact that he's _never getting back_ and he just snaps.

“A coma. It's the only explanation. See I picked up the shiny rock, and I know, you've said it a million times picking up something shiny's gonna be the death of me, but I picked it up...caught it actually but whatever, point is I knew I shouldn't touch it and I did anyways. What's more likely? That my idiocy landed me in a coma where doctors can't figure out how to bring me out of it, but my idiot family won't just pull the plug so I'm left to fester in my own brain, my own imagination… Or I somehow managed to land twenty something years in the past, where my space pirate kidnapper, turned adoptive father, seems to think I was hitting on him. Hm? Which sounds more likely to you?” 

Peter's never truly understood the word _gobsmacked_ before, but Yondu, standing in the middle of a deserted street, on a nowhere planet, faced with Peter's usual brand of babbling, looks gobsmacked.

“Quill?” It doesn't help that he asks like he thinks he's crazy, but Peter flinches hard. “What the hell have you gotten yourself into, boy? I left ya on the ship not two hours ago!”

Peter doesn't correct him, doesn't say, _it's been more like two years since you left_ , just tries to reel in his crazy and do damage control. “Nah, man look, you've got the wrong guy. Sorry to drop all my crazy on you like that, it's just been a long day...”

“Ya don' think I don' know my b- my crew? Don' get me wrong, we gonna discuss this whole,” Yondu waves his hand around as if to encompass the fact that Peter is not the ten year old he saw a few hours ago. “growth spurt ya got goin' on, but ya could age another fifty years and as soon as ya'd open ya fool mouth I'd know it was you.” 

Peter doesn't cry, _he doesn't_ , because that would be ridiculous, the wind's just really doing a number on his eyes and these places are always so dusty. He wipes a hand over his face, not to hide any tears, cause he's not crying, but because he's just so damn tired.

“Aw hell, boy. Ya got a ship or somthin'? Le's get off the street.” 

“Yeah.” Neither mention how rough his voice is, and Peter heads in the direction of where he parked his ship.

“It'a been a lot less trouble if I'd jus' let the crew eat ya.”

Peter can't help but laugh. 

XXX

Peter isn't exactly _proud_ of his ship, but considering he won it (cheated) in a game of cards he takes a little offense at the sneer on Yondu's face. Yeah, it's held together with tape and hope but it's gotten him around the galaxy for the last year and hasn't blown up (much) and killed him yet, so really there's no need for the way Yondu looks like he's afraid to step too hard or the whole thing will come down around their ears.

There's a little metal table in the thing that passes for a gally and Yondu leans against it. “Alright. Start talkin'.”

 _Where the fuck do I even start?_ “Well, what do you know about time travel?” 

Peter is well acquainted with that look. That look means, my patience is getting thinner by the second, either start talking or start running. “Yeah, me neither. I mean there's plenty of stuff that I'd always assumed was just science fiction...and then I got kidnapped by aliens and found out my father was a fucking planet that wanted to use me to destroy the galaxy,” Peter didn't miss the way Yondu's eyes narrowed but he kept going. “So, time travel? Guess it's not the most insane thing to happen to me. But you try waking up a couple decades in the past and see if you don't start going a little crazy.”

“I migh' go a little crazy jus' listen' to you.” Yondu mutters low enough Peter decides to ignore it.

“But here I am, so time travel must exist, right?” And Peter feels all of ten years old again, looking to Yondu because he'll explain it, even if Peter doesn't like the explanation at all. Because one thing Yondu never believed in, was sugarcoating the hard truths. 

Yondu just sighs. “Start from the beginin', boy. And try to focus.”

And so Peter tells him. 

The abridged version. 

XXX

It's hours later and Peter is tired of talking, which he didn't think would ever happen but here they are. 

“i'm supposed to jus' believe this story a yours? That a shiny rock-”

“Infinity stone.”

“-righ' _infinity stone_ dropped you mor'n two decades in the past?”

Peter purses his lips for a second before making a decision. There had been a few things in his pockets when he'd got thrown in the past. His zune was the most important, and he pulls the second out of the inside pocket of his jacket and drops in it a wide eyed Yondu's hand. 

It was a small, blue tentacled, big eyed thing. Peter ofter said the face looked feline, kind of like if a cat and an octopus had a baby. One of the tentacles on the right was broken off, just a stub left, the sharp edges worn down smooth over the years since Peter broke it, after being on the _Eclector_ only a few months. 

At the time, Peter had been sure he was about to be stuffed into a big pot in the mess and the crew would finally get to know what Terran tasted like, but Yondu had just told him, _You broke it, you bought it_ and on next trip planetside made him steal a replacement.

“Oh,” Peter says as an afterthought after the silence drags on a bit. “I've got a hold full of Opanae crystals that fell off a truck, if you know a guy that might take them off my hands?”

Yondu blinks at him for a handful of seconds, which is better than the staring at the wall he'd been doing so Peter counts it a win, before saying, “Le's get off this planet.” He drops the little figure back in Peter's hands before heading for the pilots chair at the front of the ship and Peter hurries to catch up with him. “That's assumin' this deathtrap can make it to the _Eclector_ without killin' us, o'course.”

“Stop insulting my ship.” Peter grumbles but sits down and runs through the pre-flight checklist mostly through muscle memory. He spends a minute deciding if he wants to object to Yondu taking flight control, but decides it's not worth the fight he's pretty sure he'd lose.

“Ya got a name for this thing?”

“ _Maggie_.”

Yondu just grunts and flips the switches for the main engines.

He shoots a _see told you it wouldn't explode when you turned the engines on_ look at Yondu but he man just scoffs.

“We haven't even left atmo, yet. Don' get cocky.”

He's a grown ass man so he's not pouting as Yondu hails the _Eclector_ and gets them to open the baydoors. 

He'd forgotten how _big_ the _Eclector_ is, used to seeing just the Third Quadrant and so he's caught up in memories as Yondu expertly maneuvers Peter's M-ship in and docks it. He powers down the ship and follows Yondu off it.

“Ya back early, cap'n,” 

And Peter just stares, cause if Yondu seemed young, Kraglin is a fucking teenager. He'd forgotten all about the scraggly beard he'd been trying to grow around this time. For his part, Kraglin barely glances his way before obviously deciding it's none of his business who his captain brings on board. 

“The boy?”Yondu asks as they start walking, Peter falling into place numbly.

“Sleepin', or close enough. Doc says the arm will be good as new in a week, but he shouldn't take the cast off, 'less he wants it to go all bendy again.”

Peter had completely forgot there'd be a younger _him_ on board.

“He'll keep it on if he knows wha's good for him.” Yondu mutters. “Doc ain't cheap.”

“Right cap'n.”

“I need a drink.” Peter says weakly and when Yondu looks over his shoulder at him he nods in understanding.

 

XXX

Peter had his first drink of alcohol on his ninth birthday. Or at least close enough to what he thought his ninth birthday would be since he'd spent most of the year in space and there weren't really _days_ to count in space. But it was close enough, that when he was laying on the floor, trying to get his breath back from the training session Yondu was putting him through he mentioned it.

He'd half expected to get hit for it, or sneered at at least. He'd only been with the Ravengers a year and while he was still mostly an angry, scared, sleep with one eye open cause they might eat me paranoid little kid, he'd also adapted to the whole space piracy thing rather well. 

Yondu had just looked at him and smirked, which was a step better than sneering at least, and told him they should celebrate him surviving a whole year. 

Sitting in the captain's quarters holding onto the cup Yondu handed him, Peter had wished he'd have just kept him mouth shut. The fumes alone were burning his nose, eyes, and even his skin, but he knew better than to refuse to drink it and so he took a breath and downed the whole thing, hoping it wouldn't end up killing him.

By the time he stoped choking and coughing his lungs out, and realized Yondu was laughing his ass off at him, Peter wished it had.

Peter's pretty sure it's the same bottle Yondu starts pouring from, but he's gotten used to the rotgut Yondu prefers and almost feels a nostalgic fondness for it. He takes the glass, Yondu keeps the bottle, and for the first time since he ended up in the past, he feels something like home. There's not really any furniture in the room besides the bunk, space on the _Eclector_ is rare and the privacy is what makes the captain's quarters what it is, and so they end up on the bed, backs to the wall, feet hanging off the edge. 

“I remember breaking my arm.” Peter admits.

“You were bein' an idiot.” 

“I thought I could catch that rope!” He's being defensive but he can't help it. Yondu just stares at him a moment, bottle halfway to his lips and Peter remembers, “Ah, that wasn't the story I told you was it?”

“I'm gonna kill 'im. Or you. Or hell...” He takes a long pull from the bottle before changing the subject.

“Opanae crystals, huh? How'd ya manage that?”

“Told ya, they fell off a truck. They're being difficult to get rid of.” Peter makes a face.

Yondu shrugs. “I migh' know a guy who'd be happy to ignore the lack of permits...for a cut, o'course.”

Peter snorts and slides down the wall, burying his head in blankets that smell like metal and blood and sweat and _home_. “Old man, I've been paying you a cut my whole damn life, gotten rather used to it at this point.”

“What the hell do ya think ya doing?” Yondu grunts a little when Peter kicks his boots off and then worms his feet behind his back. “An' 'Old man'? You're probably older tha' me!” He adjusts so Peter can straighten his legs out behind his back, before settling again. 

“Ugh, that's too weird.”

“Ya know,” Yondu reaches back and shoves at Peter's shin to get it in a more comfortable spot. “Ya've got a ship ya can sleep on.” It's lacking the heat Peter knows would be there if he really wanted him out so he just melts further into the mattress. 

“Too tired, too drunk, too far.” Peter mutters. He's pretty sure he passes out three seconds later.

XXX

Yondu stares at his boy, and it don't really matter that he's probably younger than Quill now he'll always be his boy, and tries to absorb the story he's been told. Because it's _insane_ , and a good chunk of him wants to dismiss the truth of it and find out where the angle is, and who'd want to screw with him this badly. 

But then he looks at Quill's face, half hidden under the blankets and slack with sleep and he sees the boy he taught to fight, the one he taught to shoot, the one he's thinking about getting his own M-ship because he's tired of the kid hotwiring the others and the crew bitching about it. 

The one who gave him a minor heart attack when he came back a day ago holding his arm at a weird angle, his face screwed up so he wouldn't cry in front of the crew and sold him some story that was obviously a load of shit. 

He brings the bottle up, only to find it's empty. With a sigh he drops the it on the ground and hits the com beside the bed. “Kraglin,” cause he knows the kid's still up and is most likely to answer. “Tell Horuz I wanna see 'im as soon as he's back on the ship.”

There's only a few beats of silence before the com crackles to life. “Un'erstood, Cap'n.”

It'll probably be a few hours before that happens, and it wouldn't be the first time he's shared this bunk with another so he kicks off his boots, drops his leathers on the floor and shoves Quill till there's room enough for him to stretch out, yanking the blankets a bit cause the kid's a blanket hog. 

He's not sure how long it is before there's a knock on his door (the buzzer's been broken for who knows how long now) and he pries his eyes open. Quill is still sleeping like the dead beside him as he drags himself off the bed and towards the door. 

If Horuz is surprised to find his captain half awake with someone cocooned in blankets in the bed behind him, he does good not to show it. “Kraglin said you wanted to see me, Captain?” 

“Hm.” Yondu affirms as he leans a bare shoulder against the door frame. “Set a course for Knowhere.”

Horuz scratches his head and nods. “We in a hurry to get there?”

Yondu shakes his head. “Nah, we can take the scenic route.”

“Understood, Captain.” If his eyes stray a bit to the lump in Yondu's bunk as he's turning away, Yondu's willing to ignore it. 

The door closes with a hiss and he makes the short trip back to the bed. 

“I hate Knowhere.” Comes the mumbled whine from somewhere in the piles of blankets. 

“Whatcha got against Knowhere?” He asks as he pulls his leathers off the floor and shakes it out.

A mussed head finally appears out of the blanket. “Almost died there,” Quill admits. “Ended up in upper atmo with no space suit.”

Yondu stops tugging at his collar and glares at him. “How in the hell...”

“It's a long story,” he fights his way out of the blankets enough to wave a hand. “Sides, you totally came to the rescue and didn't leave my ass to freeze solid so you know, thanks for that.” 

“Obviously a lapse a judgment on my part.” He leans against the bed and shoves his foot in a boot. “If you wanna eat, I wouldn' wait too long to get down t' the mess.” He leans the other way and shoves the other boot on. 

“Ah yes, how I have missed the fine dining found upon the _Eclector_ ,” comes Quill's sarcastic response, but the boy's sitting up as Yondu opens the door. 

He feels a smirk tug at his lips as the door slides shut behind him. It falls off his face just as fast as he starts walking towards the mess. His ship is full again. 

Apparently full of mutineers. 

XXX

After the door hissed closed behind Yondu, Peter sits on the edge of the bed massaging his aching head. 

He's back on the _Eclector_. He's headed to Knowhere. Last night, buried in familiar smells and the feeling of safety for the first time since he landed in the past, he hadn't minded that Yondu had set course without even asking if he wanted a lift. 

A lift, on a ship with a bunch of ghosts. 

And a teenage Kraglin.

_And a ten year old him._

He'd beat his head against the wall but it's too far away. 

Back in the future, and that's enough to make his head hurt, it had taken him two weeks after the whole Ego thing to ask where the rest of the Ravangers, hell the rest of the ship, was. Rocket had just given him a look when he asked, and told him he had to ask Kraglin, it wasn't his story to tell.

So with Rocket's vaguely ominous words rattling around in his head he had gone to look for Kraglin. He'd found him in the engine room, naked to the waist and covered in grease and oil, half under the machine he was working on. 

“Krags, you got a minute?”He'd asked, and now that he was paying attention he could tell Kraglin was avoiding looking at him, even as he nodded and shimmed his way out. 

“Whatcha need, Cap'n?” 

And he decided he'll come back around to that later but first he needed to know, “Where's the rest of the crew? Hell, Kraglin, where's the rest of the _ship_?” 

Kraglin opened his mouth a few times before any kind of answer actually came out. “It's gone. They're gone.”

And Peter had just stared, because he knew gone didn't mean on the other side of the galaxy, gone meant _gone_ . “What happened?” he asked in disbelief.

And Kraglin told him. All of it. 

Peter hit him at the end. Hard enough to make his knuckles hurt, but not hard enough to knock the other man off his feet. It felt like the right thing to do, for both of them, and Kraglin didn't flinch when Peter lifts his hand up and rests it on his grimy shoulder after. 

“It's not all your fault.” 

“Yeah, yeah it is. Look, I've always know the cap'n loved ya more than an'thin', definitely more than any a us, and I was so mad he was puttin' ya above us all again. But if I'da known.” Kraglin shook his head, and Peter can feel his knuckles sting where he grips the man's shoulder. “I'da rather jumped out the airlock m'self.” He'd swallowed thickly before adding, staring at the wall behind Peter's head. “I un'erstand if ya want me off the ship, next time we're planet side I'll disappear.” 

Peter was shaking his head before Kraglin even got all the words out. “This is more your ship than mine.” Hell, his was in pieces in the cargo hold waiting on Rocket to put her back together.

Kraglin had actually met his eyes at that point. “This is your ship, _Cap'n_ , and I'd be happy to serve as long as ya'll have me.” 

And Peter got it. Because Yondu had been his, and he had been Yondu's. But Kraglin had been Yondu's as well. And now Kraglin was the last one left besides Peter. 

Peter had then drug the protesting man to him in a hug, “Dude, you know I'm a hugger, don't know why you're even fighting this,” and he waited until Kraglin had grabbed onto his leathers before adding, “We gotta stick together, you and me. I'm sorry I was such an ungrateful brother.” 

Peter shakes his head hard to dispel the memories and stands up from the bed before shoving his feet in his boots. He's stuck on this ship for the foreseeable future, he needs to keep his head here, in this time. 

It's quiet as he walks towards the mess and while he's not expecting to pass many crewmates on the way, there should be some noise spilling out of the mess, but it only sounds like one person talking. It's not until he get a few steps away that he realizes Yondu's speaking, and his tone is enough to get Peter to second guess continuing, but his curiosity gets the better of him.

“… learned the lesson?” 

Peter steps into the mess just as there is a chorus of 'Yes, Cap'n' and 'Understood, Cap'n'.' No one notices him entering, instead every eye is on Tazerface, who would probably be jumping across the tables and going for Yondu's throat, if he didn't have an arrow pointed at his own.  
With murder in his eyes, the man grits his teeth and parrots, “Understood, Cap'n.” a beat after the others.

Yondu tilts his head and Peter is just at the right angle to see the man's smirk widen. “No, Tazerface, you don't understand the lesson, but that's okay.” And Peter's hair stands up on the back of his neck and he feels the entire room hold their breath. “Because, you _are_ the lesson.”

Tazerface has half a heartbeat to realize what Yondu means before a whistle pierces the air, and an arrow Tazerface's throat. The man drops to the ground as Yondu easily catches the yaka arrow and sits back down at his table. 

The entire room is silent and Peter's always has had a thing about breaking silences. “You know, if I'd have known there'd be show with the meal, I'd have gotten here sooner.” 

XXX

Kraglin stares at the cap'n's...his eyes stray to the body on the floor… guest. Pete is practically glued to his side, but he figured out a long time ago that when Cap'n was in a mood, the best place to avoid getting hit with shrapnel was near the kid. And so when Tazerface starting insinuating, the crew started laughing and the cap'n started whistling, well, he wouldn't have minded if the kid crawled right up in his lap. He was not above using the kid as a shield.

But now the cap'n is back sitting across the table from him like nothing happened.

“Told ya I wasn't waitin' on your ass.” 

The whole room takes a breath of relief and goes back to eating, though Kraglin wouldn't be shocked if they all ate a little faster than normal and decided they had somewhere else to be. Kraglin was stuck till the cap'n gave him his orders for the day. He stared a little wistfully at the full plate of rations cap'n's guest dropped on the table before setting in the chair next to the cap'n. He'd finished his off before the whole Tazerface incident and he knew better than to ask for extra.

“Somebody gonna clean up that mess?” The cap'n's voice is mild but three men get up to drag the body out before he even gets finished speaking. 

Danger passed, Kraglin elbows the kid off of him. Pete makes a face at him but moves down a little on the bench and picks his spoon back up. He's got a mouthful of food when Cap'n asks, “So boy, tell me ag'in how ya hurt your arm?”

Kraglin can almost hear the kid swallow and he's staring at the cap'n with large eyes. It's the guest that answers first though.

“You are such an asshole.”

Cap'n leans on his elbow and looks sideways at the man, eyebrow raised. “Ya've known me how long an' your jus' now figurin' that out?” he shakes his head and Kraglin can feel Pete relax next to him now that the cap'n's attention's been diverted. “No wonder your havin' trouble movin' those crystals, how slow ya are.” 

“No,” the man says through a mouthful of vitamin bar, the pink kind that tastes like fruit. “It took me about two seconds after meeting you to realize you're an asshole. I just feel the need to remind you every once and awhile.” He chews thoughtfully for a minute before adding. “And I had a buyer two months ago but the man dropped dead on me.”

“Tha's bad luck, how'd it happen?”

“He didn't want to pay.”

“Yeah, tha' tends to be fatal.”

The mess is mostly empty now, everyone headed off either to sleep to get their assigned tasks done for the day. It's quieter, relaxing almost. And Kraglin's heard through the network that they're headed to Knowhere, and after that long trip all stuck together on the ship, Kraglin's going to take any relaxing he can get now to hold him over when he has to start watching his back against bored crewmates later.

There's a thunk as a protein bar lands on Kraglin's plate. He looks up askance at the man but the guy just shrugs and says. “I don't want it and you're too scrawny.” Kraglin just gapes a little at him.

“You motherin' my crew, Quill?” 

There's a beat of silence before a small voice pipes up, “Quill? Your name's Quill?”

And that's a glare the man, Quill Kraglin guesses, is shooting the cap'n, who in turn is actually looking a little like he's regretting what he just said.

“Yeah kid, my name's Quill,” He sighs a little and his lips pull into a slight smile. “Common enough surname on Terra, right? Doesn't mean anything.”

Kraglin can feel Pete slump beside him and he speaks without thinking, “Y'all kinda look alike...” his shuts his mouth so fast his teeth clack together when he catches on to the glare he's getting from the cap'n.

“Boy, there's a protein bar on your plate, tha' should be in ya mouth.”

“Aye, Cap'n.”

Quill's smiling outright now and just shakes his head. “Hell, who knows, maybe I'm your long lost uncle or something.”

Even as he's shoving a protein bar down his throat, Kraglin can't help but notice the way the kid's eyes light up at the thought.

XXX

Yondu hands over his share of the units with a clap on his shoulder. “Not a bad price for 'em, all thin's considered.”

Peter just rolls his eyes. He's not going to argue that the influx of units isn't nice, but the 50% cut Yondu took 'off the top' was a little hard to swallow. 

“Ya ain't stickin' around are ya?” Yondu asks as they head away from the shop they dropped the crystals off at. He's not looking at Peter and if Peter didn't know him any better he'd say the question was pretty offhand, like the man couldn't really care what Peter's answer was.

Peter takes a deep breath of the smoky and pungent air that defines Knowhere and lets it out slowly. He knows he stalling, but he's not entirely sure what he wants to say.

He's been stuck on the Eclecter for nearly three weeks. And while he's slept better the few times he'd snuck into the captain's quarters than he has in months on his own, in his own ship, by the time Knowhere appeared in the windowscreens Peter was feeling like the walls were closing in on him. He was thirteen when he went on his first, long term, solo job. He'd fallen in love with the freedom of it, the privacy and lack of worrying about falling asleep and waking up to one the crew standing over him. 

He can't stay away forever, he knows that. The _Eclector_ is like that hometown you miss so fiercely some night you just up and go, only to remember after a few days exactly why you left in the first place. 

“I've got a few things I need to do.” Peter settles on, tries not to flinch at the twitch in Yondu's jaw. “But you know,” he shrugs offhandedly, “Sometimes I get these jobs, that would a be a lot easier with some help.”

Yondu shrugs right back at him. “If we're not busy. No' gonna just drop e'erythin' an' come bail ya out, ya know.”

“Wouldn't dream of it.” Peter can't help the slight uptick in the corner of his mouth. 

Peter's taken to calling younger him, Pete, cause that's what Kraglin calls him and really he's got to start thinking of the kid as his own person or he'll end up going crazy. The kid is hanging out by the hatch of the _Maggie_ , Kraglin not too far away leaning against the ship Yondu came planetside in. 

“Hey Pete,” The kid ducks as Peter reaches out to ruffle his hair and he gets a half hearted glare for his effort.

“Kraglin, get the ship ready, we're headed back to the _Eclector_.” Yondu barks and Kraglin snaps to attention.

“Aye, Cap'n,” He returns the wave Peter sends him before disappearing into the M-ship. 

Yondu cracks his neck before turning to Pete. “Boy, get on the ship, 'less you wanna get left here.” The kid's eyes widen a little, Yondu's got maybe a year left of that threat being any kind of effective.

“Wait,” Peter calls before the boy can even take a step. “Gotcha somethin'.” He ignores the way Yondu scoffs and grumbles about spoiling the kid, and pulls out a data disk from his pocket. “Clones of some Terran music, thought you might like it.”

The kid's eyes get impossibly wide and he takes the disk in slightly shaky fingers. “Oh, wow. This is awesome. Thanks!”

Peter catches Yondu's eyeroll and the fleeting look of fond exasperation before it get wiped off and a sneer replaces it. “I wa'nt kiddin' about leaving you behind, boy.”

That snaps Pete out of his daze and he starts walking backwards towards the now slightly humming M-ship. “Right, right, I'm going. Really though, thanks!” he's holding the data disk close to his chest like he's afraid someone might snatch it from him. Peter hears him call out to Kraglin as he disappears inside the ship. 

“Really, was that necessary?” Yondu asks, long suffering.

Peter just smiles. “It'll be good for crew morale,” he insists.

“Oh, sure. When they all gang together to beat him senseless after the fifth time in a row they've heard the same song, I'm sure morale will be great.”

Peter just grins wider and doesn't bother to duck out of the way as Yondu cuffs him on the back of the head. 

They don't do anything like say goodbye, one heads for one ship and the other to the other. Peter hears the M-ship take off next to his as he shuts the hatch. He doesn't really know where he's headed but he knows he wants off Knowhere so he heads for the pilots chair in the front of the ship.

He is less surprised than he figures he should be to the see the red leather draped across the back of it.

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written anything in like a year and I sat down and wrote this in three days, I guess GotG2 gave me feels or something. There will probably be a part 2 at some point.
> 
> Also I know in MCU Strange has the time stone... deal with it, lol
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
